Reaction to Offensive Daily Mail Article on our Generation of "Clones"

Hello there, me again.

I was trawling the internet and I came across this article on the Daily Mail website, written by Shona Sibary, a mother who talks about her two daughters and how she perceives this generation of teenage girls to be clones of each other and their celebrity idols.

The article can be found here.

For those of you that couldn't be bothered to read it, I'll sum it up quickly here:
Basically this lady has written an article about how she feels her teenage daughters have lost their individuality and become clones of each other and "every other teenager within a five-mile radius." The author blames the fact that her children are bombarded with the "same homogeneous images", perpetuated by the media.

This article has made me so angry. I am really frustrated that not only has this lady stereotyped her own daughters, but the rest of the UK female population between the ages of 13 and 18. I am astounded that she solely blames the media and the celebrities' mentalities that it publishes, on the fact that her daughters have become "vain" and "vapid" about their appearances. Surely if she didn't like this kind of behaviour, then she wouldn't endorse it?

"I can't help thinking my daughters' behaviour reflects something far more disturbing about teenage girls - that they have become a generation of vapid clones for whom a preoccupation with looks and appearance takes precedence over everything else."

The author has then proceeded to stereotype every teenage girl.

 Hey guys, we're all vapid clones now! Quick! Put your books down, your make-up is out of place! No time for reading or studying, your hair needs to be straightened!

No.

Actually, we're not all like that. How dare you assume that just because your daughters may care a little too much about their appearances, that every teenage girl out there does.

We are not all clones and we are not all vapid, vain, or superficial. We are individuals.

"everything they want to wear is so tight, so revealing, dare I say it, slutty."

Instead of dealing with her despair at the way her daughters dress and act, the author not only endorses it, but includes photographs of her teenage daughters wearing tight, revealing shorts and skirts on a National website! I really don't understand why she thinks that she must pay for her daughters' revealing wardrobes and show them to the entire Nation.

The fault is not solely with the media in my opinion, parents do have a responsibility to their children to guide them through their lives, this includes disciplining behaviours that they don't find to be acceptable, not endorsing or encouraging them.

Sorry guys, I know it's been a bit 'ranty' but I really wanted to get my opinion out there about it. There's nothing I hate more than people stereotyping entire populations of people, especially when those stereotypes are so judgemental and assumptive.

Zumba Crazy

While on my lifelong quest to become fit and healthy, a friend of mine said she'd seen advertisements of a Zumba class held at my school (which is often used for community purposes outside of hours). I had never been to an actual class before, only made a fool of myself on the Wii console with it, but for her, I was willing to go along and try it out. The first class was free, so what did I have to lose?

For those of you that aren't aware, Zumba is a fitness program consisting of dance and aerobic exercise routines to mainly Latin-American music, but we also dance to chart music sometimes too. It's centered around burning calories and exercising without feeling like you're working out.

So, a few of my friends and I turned up for the class and put our bags and water to the side and the Instructor walked in wearing a bright neon Zumba Fitness top with "Instructor" written on the back. We were told to just copy her and a lady pushed us to the front so we didn't get lost.
I'll admit, I felt completely out of my depth at this point. I'm not very coordinated or confident with stuff like dancing, especially in front of other people. And because this was held at my school, even if it was after hours, I felt strange.

The music came on and I copied the instructor and I couldn't help but laugh at myself! I really enjoyed it and once I got going I didn't care about how stupid I must've looked because everyone else was doing it and it was fun! The warm up song ended (a song I was pleased that I knew), and I turned to my friend and she had this huge grin on her face. "I love it already!" I said. And I did.

Some of the moves are a bit "raunchy" - for lack of a better word, but it was great! How many times a week would it be socially acceptable for me to shake my hips to music whilst not caring how stupid I look? Not many, not very many at all. It gives me the opportunity to exercise and it enjoy and afterwards I feel great and energized!

I would strongly suggest anyone who already hasn't, to get to their nearest leisure center and attend a Zumba Fitness Session!

Introduction

Hello there,

This is my first ever post on my first ever blog. Scary right? This is just going to be a sort of introduction post as to what I want to create with this blog.

So, let's get started.

My name is Zoe,

And this is my voice. With you I will share my thoughts and opinions on life and it's struggles and I hope we can become friends:)